Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Lots and lots and lots and lots of tennis. But also maybe some murder?

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

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I asked my sister if she read this book, because we both love Liane Moriarty. Her answer was “Ugh, the tennis one?”. Yes dear readers, this is the tennis one. If there are 10,000 words in this book (it’s long, so I’m sure there are way more), 7,500 of them are related to tennis. It didn’t really bother me, but apparently it bothered my sister! It’s funny, and I know I’ve said this before, but Liane Moriarty is the only author I seem to enjoy […]

Two Memoirs of Growing Up During The Troubles

Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? by Seamas O'Reilly

The Troubles With Us by Alix O'Neill

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These two memoirs tread a lot of the same ground (Northern Ireland during The Troubles, family drama/grief, all told humorously), but I honestly liked Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? better than The Troubles With Us simply because Séamas O’Reilly is a better writer and I really enjoy his voice. His memoir follows his family in the aftermath of his mother’s death when he’s five. His father is left with eleven children to take care of and the rest of the book is a series of […]

“You kids are different from the farm animals who have no way out. Running away in order to live is fine. Perfectly fine.”

Silver Spoon Vol. 1-15 by Hiromu Arakawa

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CBR14Bingo: Series (it’s a series) This is one of my favorite manga series and one I was re-reading again just out of a desire to read something cheerful and warm-hearted. Silver Spoon is by the same author as Fullmetal Alchemist, her much more famous work. It follows Yuugo Hachiken, who decides to go to an agricultural high school in rural Hokkaido because he hit a plateau in mainstream academia and was pushing himself so hard to succeed that he’d lost all enjoyment in life. By going […]

Sometimes when you’re trapped in a heat wave you need to read a book where the characters are even hotter

Sunset Beach by Mary Kay Andrews

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CBR14Bingo: Scandal My second Mary Kay Andrews book and another satisfying summer read. Andrews writes a fun mix of romance, family drama, and mystery, all of which combine to keep the plot moving at a fast pace. I noticed that a lot of the chapters were three pages long, which also added to the zippy feel of the book. This was an ideal book to consume during a historic heatwave, as I kept telling myself that at least I wasn’t as hot as the main […]

“Over her golden yard and the glittering hills beyond, into the darkness of the trees…”

Golden Age by Jane Smiley

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***Spoilers throughout*** Well, I finished this trilogy and this was a better book than the second one. I think because Smiley starts killing people off in this one, the cast feels less unwieldy and more focused. This book is more of a victory lap in terms of drawing everyone’s narratives to a close. I again had the issue that such dramatic things happen to these people that it feels unrealistic and kept taking me out of the narrative. Any time I spend most of the […]

I love epistolary novels but had a major issue with this one

The Jigsaw Jungle by Kristin Levine

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I am a sucker for an epistolary novel, and this one is told in a combination of notes, transcripts, drawings, and so on to give it a sense that it’s a scrapbook. The Jigsaw Jungle follows Claudia’s quest to figure out why her father has vanished. One evening he sends an email saying he will be home late and then never returns. Claudia’s mother then has to go on a work trip to Switzerland and Claudia ends up staying with her grandfather for two weeks while […]



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